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Ancient Calendars 



nrieut Calendars 



A BROCHURE 

Showing the Unity of Ancient Hebrew and 
Christian Rest Days 



by 

ALEXANDER S. BACON 

of ths New York Bar 

Author of "The Woolly Horse/' "The Illegal Trial of Christ," 
'• Mohammed and Islam," "Masonic Nobility," Etc. 



ELMIRA, N. Y. 

The Elmira Printing Company Inc. 

October 2 1915 

PRICE FIFTY CENTS 



Foreword 



In reading 'Ancient Calendars' one is given just 
cause to ask : Why have these facts never been discov- 
ered and advanced before? 

It is known that since Time began there have al- 
ways been different ways of dividing and designating 
the various periods of time. There are even now in ex- 
istence numerous calendars relating to years, months, 
and weeks, beginning and ending at varying times, all 
intricate, unscientific and bewildering. This is explained 
by the fact that the ancients did not know the exact 
astronomical length of the year and month, and modern 
nations have been slow to utilize modern exact astro- 
nomical information. Modern science and centuries 
of experience have demonstrated the fact that men, 
animals and even the land require rest one seventh of 
the time. The Bible proclaimed this fact of nature 
ages ago and the experience of men during all the 
centuries has confirmed it. The returns of the Spring- 
time and the new moon were patent facts of obser- 
vation by the ancients and were certain, but no known 
connection between the weekly rest day and the Solar 
lunar cycles could be found. No wonder, then, that 
Ancient Calendars were confusing and unscientific. 

But, with the triumphs of science and the com- 



pleteness of modern historic research we can, and 
should, emerge from the customs of the unscientific 
past and adopt such systems of measuring time, as well 
as weights, measures, distances, etc., as shall conform 
to our modern exact information. 

The keenly analytical mind of the Author, backed 
by years of study and research, has given to the world 
in 'A Scientific Calendar' that will come to be known as 
the only exact universal method of measuring Time. 

Anything which tends to unify the human race, 
anything tending to bring all nations, tongues and peo- 
ples into the observance of a common rest day, makes 
for the dawn of the Millenium, which is but the univer- 
sal ushering in of the Fatherhood of God and the 
Brotherhood of Man. 

The work of Colonel Bacon will, in my estimation, 
mark an epoch, not merely an incident, in the world's 
development. 

THEODORE KHARAS 



Pref 



ace 



We offer the following brochure in connection with 
the present agitation for a simplified and scientific 
calendar — as simple and scientific as the decimal 
system. Seeing an interview in a New York newspaper 
by a distinguished Jewish savant, on the staff of Col- 
umbia University, wherein it was suggested that the 
religious differences between Jew and Christian in re- 
lation to the Sabbath (Saturday) and the Lord's Day 
(Sunday) were so marked that neither would yield on 
a matter of so distinctive and all important a religious 
tenet, the writer wrote an answer to this religious ob- 
jection, demonstrating that a knowledge of the ancient 
Hebrew calendar would show that such a religious 
difference does not exist, and that there is no religious 
reason why the two holy rest days should not be united 
under a new, scientific calendar which should conform, 
largely to the Ancient Hebrew calendar. 

The writer having theretofore prepared an article 
on this same subject (first published herewith, Part II) , 
this letter to The New York Sun (Part I) was prepared 
from it, and a copy sent to the distinguished Profes- 
sor, who replied that the letter had convinced him of 
his error, and of the truth of its arguments. Indeed, 
we know of no one versed in Hebrew lore and Jewish 
history who has not confirmed the facts, after a care- 
ful examination. 

It will surprise many to know: 

1. That the Egyptian day called "Sunday" was the 
Creation Rest day. (This demonstration may not be 
complete; the inference is strong). 

2. That the "Seventh Day," the rest and feast day 
of the Hebrews, was not a fixed day of the week, but 



their Sabbaths were fixed days of the year. Every 
first day of the year, determined by observation of the 
Springtime moon, was a Sabbath, and every 8th day 
thereafter, with a double — 48 hour — Sabbath at Pen- 
tecost. 

This method of determining the beginning of the 
year by visual observation continued until the Jewish 
nation was destroyed, the Jewish race nearly annihil- 
ated, and its remnants scattered into the deserts of 
Arabia and the forests beyond the Danube, by the 
Romans, in the year 70 A. D. It was not till, probably, 
the fourth century of our era that the Jews fixed upon 
the Egyptian day called "Saturday" as a fixed weekly 
day of rest. 

This brochure is published with a hope that it may 
help to bring about an understanding between Jew and 
Christian to combine their holy days, each following 
the example of the early Jews, and not the example 
of their hated Roman masters, as each is now doing. 
Worshiping the same God (Jehovah), on the same 
day, and understanding one another better, may not dis- 
graceful persecutions cease, and may not the Christian 
hope be realized in a redeemed world where all races 
shall worship the One God and His Divine Son, having 
one holy day as a distinguishing badge of their wor- 
ship? 

ALEXANDER S. BACON. 
46 Cedar street, 
New York City, 
June 1, 1915. 



PART I 



(From the New York Sun, July 2, 1911) 

A SCIENTIFIC CALENDAR 

A Reform which Adds the 

Thirteenth Month 

of 

"LIBERTY." 

Editor, New York Sun : 

recent issue of The Times tells of an agitation 
on foot to reform our calendar, so that a 
given date may always fall on the same day 
of the week; and it was stated that the 
principal opposition to the reform is religious. I un- 
derstand that some convention is to meet this summer, 
in Europe, to take the matter under advisement. This 
religious opposition comes from an entire misconcep- 
tion of Scripture. The change would not violate the 
Fourth Commandment, but would, on the contrary, be 
a return to ancient Hebrew methods of computing 
time. 

Our present difficulty arises from the fact that 
there is no common divisor of 3651,4, 29% and 7, the 
approximate lengths of the year, month and week. 

The following would be an ideal calendar: Let 
there be 13 months of 28 days each (364 days) ; let 

15 




ANCIENT CALENDARS 

each year, month and week begin on Sunday, "the first 
day of the week ;" let the last day of the year be a dies 
non — or better, be a double Sabbath of 48 hours. 

By this arrangement, the day of the month in any 
year would always indicate the day of the week. That 
is, the tenth day of every month would t>e the second 
Tuesday of the month, and if one made an engage- 
ment for the 19th of any month, he would know that it 
would fall on Thursday. Let the new month be placed 
between June and July, and thus be the keystone of 
the arch of months, and be named "Liberty" in honor 
of the People, not of some Emperor, as were the last 
two interpolated months, July and August. Leap year 
could be provided for by another double Sunday, say in 
the middle of the year. Such a scientific calendar 
would be as simple and convenient as the decimal sys- 
tem and would practically be a reversion to the old 
Jewish calendar. 

While the Egyptians named the days of their 
week, the Jews numbered them only, the first day of 
the week being always the day after the weekly Sab- 
bath. 

Fifteen different methods of Sabbath counting 
are known to have existed during the last 4,000 years, 
including every day of the week, weeks of different 
and varying lengths, from six to ten days, and months 
of various and varying lengths. 

Sabbath keeping appears in history soon after the 
Babel confusion, among all the scattered nations, and 
when Israel left Egypt, there were five known methods 
of Sabbath counting. The ancient Hebrew calendar 
was the nearest approach to a scientific calendar of any 
of which we have any record. 

Over 3,600 years ago, the Egyptian astronomers 
adopted the present week of seven days, wholly dis- 
associated from the lunar or solar cycles. The Chri^ 

16 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

tian week is exactly like it except that its first day is 
Sunday, not Friday; both are as unscientific as possible, 
in so far as their relations to the month and the year 
are concerned. 

The modern Jewish calendar had its origin, not in 
the Hebrew Age (beginning with the Exodus under 
Moses and ending with the destruction of Jerusalem 
by Titus in the year A. D. 70), but, probably, about the 
fourth Century of our era, after the Jews had recover- 
ed from the shock of the destruction of their capital 
city, and their dispersion and attempted annihilation 
by Titus. It was not until this comparatively modern 
date that the present Jewish calendar established their 
Sabbaths on Saturday as a fixed day of the week, and 
not, as in ancient times, on fixed days of the year. (See 
Jewish Enc, vol. 3, titles, "Calendar, History of;" 
"Calendars"). 

It will surprise many to learn that it has been de- 
monstrated cogently that the day called Sunday by the 
Egyptians was the creation Sabbath, and kept as such 
during the Patriarchal period until lost in the confusion 
of tongues at Babel; that during the Hebrew period 
(Moses to Christ) the Sabbath was not a fixed day of 
the week, but a moveable holy day, changing each year, 
like our Fourth of July, and that, in the Christian era, 
it was changed to a fixed day of the week, by both Jew 
and Christian, following the custom of their Roman 
masters. 

As already sugggested, the Jews did not name 
the days; they numbered them. Sabbath means "ces- 
sation" or "rest," and the same word is applied to peri- 
ods of five different lengths: (1) a rest in one day (Ex- 
odus xx, 8-11; Deut. v, 12-15) ; (2) a rest of two days 
in length (Lev. xxiii, 15, 16, 21, et seq.) ; (3) a rest pe- 
riod of one year (Lev. xxv, 4, 5, 8, et seq) ;. (4) a rest 
period of two years (Lev. xxv, 8-12 et seq.) ; (5) a rest 

17 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

of 70 years (2 Chron. xxxvi, 21). The word translated 
"Sabbath" was never used to designate any day of the 
week, having any particular name ; it was the "seventh" 
day. 

The Hebrew calendar was founded upon, but im- 
proved, the ancient Egyptian calendar from which it 
was taken. On fleeing from Egypt, they changed the 
beginning of their civil year from the autumnal equi- 
nox (September 22) to the vernal equinox (March 21) 
(Ex. xii, 1). They retained the 30-day month, but in- 
stead of adding five days at the end of the year, they 
added 3 days at the end of the sixth month, and two 
days at the end of the twelfth month. Seven supple- 
mentary days, or one week, were added about every 
28 years to provide for our leap years. This would 
keep their scientific Day of Rest one day in seven, in 
touch with their unscientific month of thirty days 
which was as near as they could get to the lunar month 
of 291/2 days. 

On fixed certain days of the year labor had to be 
done; these days could, therefore, never fall on the 
Sabbath Day in any year during the Jewish dispensa- 
tion, for no servile work was to be done on any Sab- 
bath, while these days were to be devoted to butcher- 
ing, housecleaning, harvesting, etc. (Ex. xii, 3, 5, 6, 
24; Lev. xxiii, 5). Certain fixed days were required 
to be Sabbath days, including the 1st, 8th and 15th 
days of Abib (first month) and the 4th, 5th and 12th 
days of Sivan (third month). The fixed days for labor 
and rest indicated in the Bible enable us to construct 
a Jewish calendar. Moses placed the shew bread on 
the tables the first day of the second year (Ex. xl, 17, 
22, 23) ; this was to be done on every Sabbath Day 
(Lev. xxiv 8) ; and the first day of every 8th month is 
a Sabbath (Lev. xxiii, 24), i. e., the Sabbaths were on 
fixed days of the year, not on a fixed day of the week. 

18 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

Mr. Gamble has demonstrated this fact beyond 
any controversy, and his book and its chart have been 
submitted to the most scientific Jewish, Protestant and 
Catholic scholars and divines, and all, who were skep- 
tical at first, finally confirmed his demonstration, i. e., 
the first day of every week of every year was a Sab- 
bath, and every 8th day thereafter was a Sabbath. 
This very desirable arrangement was accomplished by 
making the Pentecost [50th day after Abifo, 15, (the 
Passover)] a double Sabbath or rather a Sabbath of 
48 hours in length, and then starting a new week, on 
a new day, thus skipping a clay and making 52 weeks 
equal 365 instead of 364 days. Both the 4th and 5th 
days of Si van, the third month, (Penticost) were rest 
days or Sabbaths. 

We learn from Lev. xxiii, 16, 16, 21, that the 49th 
day after the Passover was a Sabbath. So was the 50th 
day, Pentecost, a "Holy convocation unto you : ye shall 
do no servile work therein ; it shall be a statute forever 
in all your dwellings throughout your generations." 

This fact of a double Sabbath Penticost has been 
overlooked or misunderstood for centuries. 

It is well known that every seventh year was a 
Sabbath year when the land had rest (Lev. xxv, 2-7), 
but on the 49th and 50th years the land had a double 
Sabbath year — or a two-years' rest — and on the 50th 
year, the Jubilee year, every alienated inheritance re- 
verted to the heirs (Lev. xxv, 8-11; 20-22). The an- 
alogy of the Jubilee, or 50th year and Penticost, the 
50th day, and the double Sabbath and the double Sab- 
bath rest years is complete ; and it seems strange that 
the plain reading of Lev. xxiii, 15, 16, 21, did not, for 
so long a time, reveal the fact that both the 49h and 
50th days after the Passover constituted a single, elon- 
gated Sabbath. 

19 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

Space cannot properly be taken to demonstrate 
fully the following facts : 

" Dion Cassius (A. D. 155-240) says that the Jews 
left Egypt on Saturday, the day after the Egyptian 
Sabbath or "day of assembly," and we know from 
Num. xxiii, 3, that this departure was on Abib 15. 

The first Pentecost (the 50th day thereafter) would 
thus come on the Egyptian Sunday, and the fact of 
the double Sabbath at Pentecost and the fixing of the 
Sabbath as the first day of each year, would make the 
Jewish Sabbath come on each day of the modern week 
in every seven years. 

That is, during the firsty ear after the first Pentecost, 
the Sabbaths would fall on Sundays, if the present 
method of naming days had prevailed ; the next year 
on Mondays, and so on. Every 7th year it would again 
be on Sunday, and in 1680 years (7 by 240) it would be 
on Saturday, i. e., according to the modern reckoning, 
the Sabbath would be on Saturday at the time of 
the crucifixion. It will be remembered that the Sab- 
bath was never called "Saturday" but the 7th day." 

During the first year after the first Pentecost 
{double Sabbath) after the crucifixion the Christian 
Sunday and the Jewish Sabbath would coincide. 

For three Centuries, the Christians and Jews, with 
their seven-day week, and the Romans, with their 
eighth-day week, were struggling for supremacy. 

The exacttime when the Jews adopted their modern 
calendar, placing the Sabbath on Saturday as a fixed 
day of the week, and not on fixed days of the year, 
is uncertain. Some place it in the second century; 
some place it at a later date. (Jewish Enc.) It is 
well known that the Roman rest-day was one day in 
eight; that Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, 
first legalized the Christian Sabbath in the 4th Century 
when he put it on an equality with the Pagan Nun- 

20 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

dinae. Up to the time of Theodosius the Great, the 
two week-methods were on an aqual footing, and the 
Eoman calendars represented both by placing in par- 
allel columns the 8 Nundinal letters A-H and the 7 
week letters A-G. Theodosius finally abrogated the 
Eoman week in the 4th Century. 

It is a noticeable fact that according to the accepted 
chronology there were just 1680 years between the 
Exodus and the Resurrection. 1680 divided by 7 gives 
240, hence there were 240 septenary revolutions, and 
under the Jewish system each day of the Egyptian 
week with its days "named" would have been called 
a Sabbath day 240 times. The Jews left Egypt on 
Saturday, the day upon which Pharoah issued the 
emancipation proclamation. (Dion Cassius.) 

After 1680 years we find the Sabbath again on 
Saturday. The death by crucifixion was at three o'- 
clock on Friday (some claim it was Thursday), the 
very day and hour on which the blood was placed on 
the doorposts of Egypt; and after remaining in the 
tomb over the Sabbath ("the feast of the Passover,") 
as Moses had remained in the mountain with God, the 
Saviour returned on the Sunday and announced a new 
Sabbath as Moses had done before him. The analogy 
is striking. 

After the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, 
A. D., the scattering of the weak Christian church, 
the annihilation of the Jewish nation, and the attempt- 
ed annihilation of the Jewish race, it is not surprising 
that the scattered Christians should gradually, if not 
unconsciously, have given up the celebration of the 
Lord's Day on fixed days of the year, and conformed to 
the custom of the people with whom they mingled, 
in celebrating a fixed week-day, which they held in 
commemoration of the resurrection, the great event in 
Christian theology. 

21 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

The persecution of the Christians by brutal Romans, 
begun under Nero, continued through many genera- 
tions ; and, unfortunately, the persecutions of the Jews 
continued for centuries thereafter, even to this day, 
not at the hands of brutal Romans, but of brutalized 
Christians who have forgotten the teachings of the 
humble Nazarene and the forgiving character of the 
early martyrs in the primitive church. It is no wonder, 
then, that during those trying times, the Jews thought 
more of preserving their lives than of preserving their 
calendars that were in the custody of the priests, and 
that they, too, after a few centuries, unwittingly adopt- 
ed a fixed weekly Sabbath, forgetting the scientific 
Sabbath of their fathers. 

All students of Jewish theology know that for cen- 
turies the first day of the year and consequently the 
first Sabbath of the year was determined by the priests 
by observation of the new Springtime moon, and that, 
as soon as seen, signal fires telegraphed the hour to 
all parts of Palestine. When the Samaritans, from pure 
ugliness, interfered with these signals by false fires, 
swift messengers were substituted. After the destruc- 
tion of the city, A. D. 70, this method of determining 
the new year was necessarily abolished and in the course 
of time, more exact astronomy took the place of visual 
lunar observation; and it was not until after some centu- 
ries of dispersion that the Jews gathered themselves 
together, re-established their ordinances and adopted a 
seven-day week, forgetting the double-Sabbath at Pen- 
tecost, and conformed to the Christian method of reck- 
oning time, which, in turn, had theretofore followed in 
the suit of the 8-day fixed week of the Romans. 

Of all calendars, ancient and modem, none is so 
nearly scientific as that of the ancient Hebrews, and 
all civilized nations have appreciated the benefits- — in- 
deed the absolute necessity — of the Hebrew Sabbaths. 

22 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

Without doubt, one day's rest in seven meets the re- 
quirements of man, as it meets the requirements of 
God. In the old Jewish theocracy, church and state 
were one, and the civil and religious laws emanated 
from the same source. 

The thoughts suggested in this letter may startle 
some ; they have startled others. But, as already stat- 
ed, no scientific theologian has doubted Dr. Gamble's 
demonstration of this argument, after examining it 
thoroughly, i. e. the Jewish Sabbaths from Moses to 
Christ were on fixed days of the year, the first day and 
every eighth day thereafter being a Sabbath with a 
forty-eight hour Sabbath at Penticost. 

In reforming the calendar, let us reform it scien- 
tifically. There can be no improvement upon the old 
Jewish method, except the introduction of a 13th 
month; and let the key-stone of a perfect calendar 
be named "Liberty." 

This change by adding a 13th month would have 
been no particular advantage to the old Hebrews, for 
they numbered their days, but, inasmuch as we have 
had fixed upon us the old Egyptian method of naming 
days, a simply perfect calendar could be devised as 
indicated in this letter, and when Jews and Christians 
alike thoroughly understand the old Jewish method 
of determining the Sabbath days, there can be no re- 
ligious scruples on the part of either Jew or Gentile in 
making that change. The same God that fixed a rest 
day one day in seven, also made 365, not 364 days in 
the year, but he provided for this difference by giving 
to Moses a scientific method of fixing the day. It was 
left to the ignorance of His children through long cen- 
turies of persecution, to forget exact scientific methods 
and perpetuate their unholy differences by the cele- 
bration of different holy days. 

23 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

There is no reason why the Jews and Christians 
should quarrel over their Day of Rest. They should be 
the same day. 

ALEXANDER S. BACON. 

Our present New Year's Day on January 1st, is 
comparatively recent. In B. C. 46 (Roman Era 708) 
Ancient Calendars were in hopeless confusion owing 
to their inexact knowledge of the length of the year 
and the month. Festivals wandered about the year, 
and the seasons went awry. The civil equinox was 
three months earlier than the astronomical. Generally 
speaking, New Year's day was supposed to be at the 
vernal or autumnal equinox. Julius Ceasar, then at 
the plentitude of his world-wide power, iixed the year 
at 36514 days and changed New Years from March 
25th to January 1. The change was easy; the world 
obeyed when its autocrat spoke. 

In A. D. 1582, astronomy had determined that the 
year's length was not 365 days 6 hours, but 365 days 
5 hours 49 minutes, 12 seconds (The Gregorian year) 
which exceeds the true solar year by 26 seconds, an 
error so slight that it only amounts to a day in 3323 
years. 

The Julian calendar was 10 days too slow, and 
Pope Gregory XIII decreed that October 5 should be 
October 15, and established our modern calendar with 
appropriate leap years. Roman Catholic countries 
obeyed at once, but England did not conform to this 
more scientific calendar till the Calendar Amendment 
Act of 1751, which changed the beginning of the legal 
year from March 25th to January 1st, and otherwise 
conformed to the Gregorian Calendar. Russia and 
Greece still adhere to the Julian Calendar, and are 
now 12 days behind the times. 

The division of the day into 24 hours and the week 

24 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

into 7 days have prevailed from the remotest ages, 
although the seven-day week was not used by the 
Greeks, nor by the Romans, before the reign of Theo- 
dosius in the fourth Century of our era. 

Note: The above letter was dictated from an un- 
published article, written some years before. The 
Article is somewhat fuller than the letter, and is print- 
ed, as Part II, at the risk of some repetition, which 
seems warranted, as the repetitions serve to emphasize 
a subject of highest importance. This discussion may 
aid in breaking down one barrier between Jews and 
Christians who worship the same God (Jehovah) and 
who, it is sincerely hoped, at some time, may sink all 
their differences, having learned to appreciate the 
fact that God is known to men through His Holy Book 
and that His character is illumined and revealed in the 
life of His divine Son. 

Certainly a better knowledge of these facts of an- 
cient history will tend to suppress horrible persecu- 
tions, and, to break down race distinctions that have 
disgraced, and are still disgracing, our boasted Chris- 
tian civilization. 



25 



PART II 
ANCIENT CALENDARS 



I. The day of the week named Sunday by 
the ancient Egyptians was, probably, the Sabbath 
of Eden and the Patriarchal Age, until lost in 
the confusion of tongues at Babel. 

2. The Sabbaths of the Hebrew period — 
Moses to Christ — occurred on fixed days of the 
year and not upon any fixed day of the week, 
changing annually like our New Years and 4th 
of July. 

j. Saturday was not adopted by the Jews 
as their Sabbath day until some centuries after 
the destruction of Jerusalem — until after they 
had recovered from the attempted annihilation of 
their race by the Romans. 

Modern research has brought to light much new in- 
formation concerning ancient customs. These research- 
es are not only based on recent discoveries upon the 
sites of long forgotten cities, but upon the more in- 
telligent and scientific application of facts long known. 
No fiercer conflicts have been waged than upon the 
subject of ancient calendars and the proper day of 
the week for the celebration of the Sabbath or "rest 
day." This knowledge has been within reach for cen- 
turies, yet never until recently has it been sufficiently 
well digested to determine the exact facts. 

27 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

When God in His infinite wisdom, sought to set aside 
a chosen people to become the recipients of His rev- 
elation and the channel through which to bless the 
world in the person of His Son, He first sent them to 
school in Egypt, the cradle and center of ancient civili- 
zation. Knowledge, unless embedded in correct re- 
ligious beliefs and a code of good morals, does not de- 
velop an exalted private or national character, and the 
wise men of Egypt, while excellent schoolmasters in 
science, literature and art, were anything but models 
to be followed in religion and morals ; they were wise, 
but irreligious and immoral, according to our standards 
of morality based upon the Jewish and Christian scrip- 
tures. God, therefore, while training His chosen people 
in Egyptian learning, relieved them from temptations 
of a corrupt and irreligious environment, by suffering 
them to become slaves. They absorbed Egyptain learn- 
ing without the corrupting influences of Egyptain 
manners. 

The advanced learning of the ancient Egyptians in 
astronomy and mathematics is no longer a subject of 
doubt. They knew that the year was, approximately 
365% days in length and the lunar month 29% days. 
The week of seven days was already old, and the 
physical, mental, moral and economical, advantages of 
a rest day- — one day in seven — were fully appreciated 
even if its divine origin was forgotten. They knew that 
seven was not an exact divisor of 29, 30, or 365, and 
they, therefore, wholly disassociated the week from 
their civil and astronomical divisions of time. The 
Egyptain year began with the autumnal equinox (Sep- 
tember 22). It was divided into 12 months which 
were invariably of thirty days each, with five supple- 
mental days added at the end of the twelfth month. 
(1) [For references see end of article]. Leap years 

> 28 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

were duly provided for. The day was divided into 24 
hours. 

The days of the week were named, taking their 
names from the planets, of which seven were known to 
the Egyptains. These planets, were, in the order of 
their distance from the earth, (I) Saturn, (II) Jupiter, 
(III) Mars, (IV) The Sun, (V) Venus, (VI) Mercury, 
and (VII) The Moon. 

The planets ruled over every hour of the day in the 
order named, and the day was named after the planet 
that ruled over its first hour. Thus, Saturn, the most 
distant planet, ruled over the first hour of the first day 
of the first month; hence DAY ONE was called "the day 
of Saturn" (Saturday). Jupiter, the next most dis- 
tant, ruled over the second hour of the first day, and so 
on, throughout the 24 hours, Mars ruling over the 24th 
hour. This would bring the Sun as the ruling planet 
of the first hour of the second day ; hence DA YTWO was 
called "the day of the Sun" (Sunday) . In like maimer, 
in succession, DAY THREE was "the day of the Moon" 
(Monday) ; DAY FOUR "the day of Mars" (Saxon, 
TIW) — (Tuesday) ; DAY FIVE "the day of Mercury" 
(Saxon, "WODEN"— Wednesday) ; DAY SIX, "the day 
of Jupiter" (Saxon "THOR"— Thursday) and DAY 
SEVEN, "the day of Venus" (Saxon "FREIA"-Friday). 
The 24th hour of the seventh day was ruled over by the 
Moon, and the first hour of the eighth day by Saturn 
again, and so on indefinitely. Friday, the seventh day 
of the week was the Egyptian "day of assembly" ; and 
Friday was the rest-day or the Sabbath of both the 
Egyptians and their slaves in bondage. (1) 

While the Egyptians namedthe days of their week, 
the Jews number d them only, the first day of the week 
being always the day after the weekly Sabbath. (2) 

Fifteen different methods of Sabbath counting are 

29 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

known to have existed during the last 4000 years, in- 
eluding every day of the week, weeks of different and 
varying le n gths, from 6 to 10 days, and months of 
various and varying lengths. Sabbath keeping appears 
in history soon after the Babel confusion, among all 
the scattered nations, and when Israel left Egypt there 
were live known methods of Sabbath counting: 3 sys- 
tems which located Sabbaths on fixed dates in each 
month; one system dependent upon the phases of the 
moon ; the Egyptian system, a fixed day of the week — 
Friday; and for the first seven weeks of the Exodus, 
the Hebrews kept Saturday. 

Over 3600 years ago, the Egyptian astronomers 
adopted the present week of seven days, whooly dis- 
associated from the lunar or solar cycles. The Chris- 
tian week is exactly like it except that its first day is 
Sunday, not Saturday. The modern Jewish calendar 
had its origin not in the Hebrew Age, (beginning with 
the Exodus under Moses and ending with the destruc- 
tion of Jerusaleum by Titus in the year A. D. 70), but, 
probably, about the third Century of our era, after they 
had recovered from the shock of the destruction of their 
capital city, their dispersion by Titus, and the attempt- 
ed annihilation of their race by the Romans. It was 
not until this comparatively modern date that the pres- 
ent Jewish calendar established their Sabbath on Satur- 
day, a fixed day of the week. (2) 

It can scarcely be said that the ancient Egyptian, 
or the modern Christian, or Jewish calendar, is the most 
scientific, because each can be improved. If we should 
divide each year into 13 months of 28 days each, with 
an extra Sunday at New Years (13 x 28 plus 1 equals 
385) , we should always have the same day of the month 
upon the same day of the week, and all reckonings 
would be simplified. We will show presently that the 
ancient Hebrew calendar was the nearest approach to 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

this scientific calendar of which we have any record. 

The object of this discussion is not so much to 
consider the rest-day of the Patriarchal Age or of the 
modern Christian and Jewish Age, as that of the 
Hebrew Age from the Exodus to the destruction of 
Jerusalem; and the recent studies of the Rev. Samuel 
Walter Gamble, Field Secretary of the Lord's Day 
Alliance, in his work entitled "Sunday" the true Sab- 
bath of God," (Eaton & Mains, New York), have thrown 
a flood of light upon this subject, and his deductions 
have met with the approval of the most learned Jewish 
and Christian scholars. 

It will surprise many to learn that it has been 
demonstrated cogently that the day called Sunday by 
the Egyptians was the creation Sabbath, and kept as 
such during the Patriarchal period until lost in the con- 
fusion of tongues at Babel; that during the Hebrew 
period (Moses to Christ) the Sabbath was not a fixed 
day of the week, but a movable holy day, changing 
each year like our fourth of July ; that, in the Christian 
era, it was changed back to a fixed day of the week ; 
and that our Sunday, the last day of the Patriarchal 
week, become the Sabbath again. 

As already suggested, the Jews did not name the 
days; they numbered them. Sabbath means "cessa- 
tion" or "rest," and the same word is applied to the 
periods of five different lengths: I, A rest of one day 
(3) ; II, a rest of two days in length, (4) ; III. a rest 
period of one year (5) ; IV, a rest period of two years 
(6) ; V, and a rest of 70 years (7). The word trans- 
lated "Sabbath" was never used to designate any par- 
ticular day of the week. 

The Hebrew calendar was founded upon, but im- 
proved, the ancient Egyptian calendar, from which it 
was taken. On fleeing from Egypt, they changed the 
beginning of their civil year from the autumnal equi- 

31 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

nox (September 22) to the vernal equinox (March 21) 
(8). They retained the 30-day month, but instead of 
adding 5 days at the end of the year, they added 3 days 
at the end of the 6th month and two days at the end of 
the 12th month. Seven supplementary days, or one 
week, were added about every 28 years to provide for 
our leap year. 

Abib, the seventh month of the Egyptian year, 
became the first month of the Hebrew year, (9), Abib 
1, being March 21; and on Abib 16 (April 5) occurred 
the first day of the new harvest, which, in the Jordan 
Valley with its fixed climate, was a practically un- 
changing event. (10) 

Abib 10, 14 and 16 were, in each year, days on 
which labor must be done; these days could, there- 
fore, never fall on the Sabbath day in any year during 
the Jewish dispensation, (11) for no servile work was 
to be done on any Sabbath, while these days were to 
be devoted to butchering, housecleaning, harvesting, 
etc. Abib 1, 8, .15, 22 and 29; Iyar (2nd month) 
6, 13, 20 and 27; Sivan (3rd month) 4, 5, and 12; and 
Tisri (7th month) 1, 8, 15, and 22, were required to be 
Sabbath days. Abib 15, the Passover, the day be- 
fore the first ripe sheaf of the harvest was ready to be 
waved, (12) was a "high day" or the chief Sabbath in 
each year. 

These fixed days enable us to construct the Jewish 
calendar wherein, among others, the first day (Abib 1) 
of every year is a Sabbath, (13) and the first day of 
every seventh month is a sabbath, (14), i. e. the Sab- 
baths were on fixed days of the year, not on a fixed day 
of the week. Mr. Gamble's chart illustrates the Jew- 
ish calendar beyond controversy. This very desirable 
arrangement was accomplished by making the Pente- 
cost (50th day after the Passover, Abib 15) a double 
Sabbath, or rather a Sabbath of 48 hours in length, and 

32 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

then starting a new week, on a new day, thus skipping 
a day and making 52 weeks equal 365, instead of 384 
days. 

We learn from Lev. XXIII, 15, 16, 21, that the 49th 
day after the Passover was a Sabbath ; so was the 50th 
day, Pentecost, a "Holy convocation unto you: ye 
"shall do no servile work therein : it shall be a statute 
"forever in all your dwellings throughout your gen- 
"erations." 

This fact of a double Sabbath has been overlooked 
or misunderstood for centuries. 

It is well known that every seventh year was a 
Sabbath year when the land had rest; (15) but on the 
49th and 50th years the land had a double Sabbath 
year — or a two year rest — and on the 50th year, the 
Jubilee year, every alienated inheritance reverted to 
the heirs. (16) The analogies between the Jubilee 
or 50th year and Pentecost, the 50th day, and the dou- 
ble Sabbath, and the double Sabbath rest years are 
complete. 

It has long been understood — indeed it has not 
been questioned — that the first rest year was the sev- 
enth after the fiftieth or Jubilee year, i. e. it was count- 
ed from the fiftieth not the forty-ninth year, else there 
would have been five, not six, harvest years following 
the Jubilee year. And it seems rather strange that the 
plain reading of Lev. XXIII 15, 16, 21, did not, for so 
long a time, reveal the fact that both the forty-ninth 
and fiftieth days after the Passover constituted a sin- 
gle, elongated Sabbath. 

Thus we see that the Jewish Sabbaths were fixed 
days of the year, like our New Years and 4th of July, 
and not like our Thanksgiving on a fixed day of the 
week. 

We learn from Dion Cassius, the Roman historian 
(A. D. 155 (?) — 240 (?) ) that the Jews left Egypt on 

33 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

Saturday, the day after the Egyptian Sabbath or "day 
of assembly," and we learn from Num. XXXIII, 3, that 
this departure was on Abib 15. From the fourth Com- 
mandment, as recorded in Exodus XXII, 8-11, the Sab- 
bath day was to be kept holy because "in six days the 
"Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in 
"them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the 
"Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" and as 
recorded in Deut. V, 12-15, it was to be kept holy 
because they were to "remember that thou wast a 
servant in the land of "Egypt, and the .Lord thy God 
brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by 
a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God com- 
manded thee to keep the Sabbath day." 9 One covenant 
commemorates creation, the other emanciaption. 
Why this difference? 

Here is the theory of Mr. Gamble: the Jews left 
Egypt on Saturday. This would make the first Pente- 
cost (the 50th day thereafter) on Sunday. "In the third 
month ** the same day" (i. e. the third day of the month) 
they entered the wilderness of Sinai, and Moses "went 
up unto God." (17) The third day of the third month 
(Sivan 3) was Friday, and on that day Moses went up 
into the mountain. He stayed there that day and the 
next (the forty-ninth day from the Passover) and on 
the third day (the fiftieth) he returned to the people. 
During these first seven weeks, the Jews had kept Satur- 
day, not Friday, as a holy day on accaunt of their in- 
tense antipathy to their Egyptian oppressors. Moses 
went up into the mountain the day before the seventh 
Sabbath (forty-ninth day). He came down on the 
fiftieth day (Pentecost) and when Moses spoke the ten 
Commandments as recorded in Exodus, he required 
the six days of labor to begin on the following day, 
which would be our Monday. 

Let it be remembered that while the Jews were 

34 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

slaves in Egypt they kept Friday, the Egyptian Sabbath. 
Upon their flight from Egypt, they made Saturday their 
Sabbath, but on receiving the Ten Commandments, 
the new labor week began on the following day. We 
learn from Nehemiah IX, 13-14, that when Moses came 
down from Mount Sinai (Sunday, Sivan 5) he spoke 
to the Jews from heaven and "madest known unto them 
the holy Sabbath ;" but the next Sabbath after that 
first Pentecost — and during the whole of the following 
year — would be on Sunday. From this it is argued 
that the original rest day of the Patriarchal Age was 
Sunday, the seventh day of the primeval week; that 
this rest day was observed until the confusion of tongues 
at Babel, and thereafter it became lost ana was not re- 
vealed until "made known" by direct revelation to 
Moses on Mount Sinai. 

It will be remembered that the original tables of 
stone were very soon destroyed. Moses went back 
into the mountain, and when he returned on the 17th 
day of the fourth month, he found the people worship- 
ing a golden calf, a proceeding that amounted to rebel- 
lion. Moses broke the tables of stone in his wrath, and 
3,000 men were killed for "polluting the Sabbath," 
and new tables of stone were thereafter constructed. 
These new tables were re-written 83 days after the oral 
"covenant" (10 Commandments) was given to the 
people on Sunday, Sivan 5. 

Moses taught the contents of the tables of stone 
orally for about forty years, and a short time before 
Ms death assembled the people together and wrote 
down again the words on the tables of stone as recorded 
in Deuteronomy V. Deuteronomy means the second 
law ("deuteros" second, "nomos" law.) 

The second version of the Commandments (Deut. 
V.) indicates that the new, irregular or changeable 
Sabbath (as far as the day of the week is concerned) 

35 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

was in commemoration of the escape from Egypt, while 
the fixed weekly Sabbath referred to on the first Pen- 
tecost (Exodus XX) was a revelation of the Adamic 
Sabbath, a fixed seventh day of the week — Sunday. 
The Sabbath given to Adam was to commemorate God's 
work of creation; the Sabbath given to the Israelites 
was to commemorate their deliverance from bondage 
on Abib 15, a fixed day of the year. 

Being a changeable day by reason of the fact of 
the double Sabbath at Pentecost, during the year fol- 
lowing this first Pentecost, the weekly Sabbaths would 
fall on Sundays ; the next year on Mondays, and so on. 
Every seventh year it would again be on Saturday, and 
in 1680 years, (7 by 240 ) it would be on Saturday 
again. 

It is not always remembered that Jewish Sabbaths 
were feast days; they were not fast days. The only 
exception to this, found in the law, was a fast "Sabbath" 
(day of atonement) on the 10th day of the 7th month 
(18) but the weekly Sabbaths of Tisri (the 7th month) 
were the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and the 29th, therefore 
this fast Sabbath was not one of the weekly Sabbaths. 
Jewish custom and tradition have given us another 
fast Sabbath which was one of the weekly Sabbaths. 
This was the 17th day of the fourth month, the day that 
Moses first came out of the Mount at the end of the 
forty days of fasting, when he found the people pollut- 
ing the Sabbath by worshiping the golden calf, and 
when 3000 were put to death. Thus we will see that 
there were in each year 53 weekly Sabbaths and one 
extra fast Sabbath, 54 Sabbath days in all. It will be 
remembered that custom required that the whole Law 
should be studied in course every year, and was divided 
into 54 portions or sections, one for each Sabbath of 
the year. Hitherto this has not been understood, but 
it now becomes perfectly plain. The 54 portions of the 

36 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

law were studied on each Sabbath day, which included 
the 53 weekly Sabbaths and one extra fast-day Sab- 
bath. 

The only day of the Jewish year that was dignified 
by the name of Sabbath, outside of the weekly Sab- 
baths, was this fast-day, the Day of Atonement, which 
may be compared with the Thursday Thanksgiving in 
the United States, which is always on a fixed day of the 
week, and never on a weekly Sabbath. Its date was 
Tisri 10 which was the second day after the weekly 
Sabbath. 

The exact date when the Jews adopted their mod- 
ern calendar, placing the Sabbath on Saturday as a fixed 
day of the week, and not fixed days of the year is un- 
certain. Some place in the second century ; some at a 
later date (2). It is well known that the Roman rest- 
day was one day in eight; that Constantine, the first 
Christian emperor, first legalized the Christian Sab- 
bath in the fourth century, when he put it on an equali- 
ty with the Pagan Nundinae. Up to the time of Theo- 
dosius the Great, the two week methods were on an 
equal footing, and the Roman calendars represented 
both by placing in parallel columns the 8 Nundinal 
letters A-H and the 7 week letters A-G. Theoclosius 
finally abrogated the Roman week in the fourth Cen- 
tury. 

It is a noticeable fact that according to the accept- 
ed chronology there were just 1680 years between the 
Exodus and the Resurrection. 1680 divided by 7 gives 
240, hence there were 240 septenary revolutions, and 
under the Jewish system each day of the Egyptian week 
would have been called a Sabbath day 240 times. The 
Jews left Egypt on Saturday, the day upon which 
Pharoah issued the "emancipation proclamation'' 
through Moses to the Israelites. 

After 1680 years we find the Sabbath again on 

37 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

Saturday. The death by crucifixion was at three o'clock 
on Friday, (some say Thursday) the very day and hour 
on which the blood was placed on the doorposts of 
Egypt; and after remaining in the tomb over the Sab- 
bath ("the feast of the Passover") as Moses had re- 
mained in the mountain with God, the Savior returned 
on the Sunday and announced a new Sabbath as Moses 
had done before him. The anology is striking. 

A correct translation of Matt. XXVIII, 1, is as fol- 
lows : "In the end of the Sabbaths (i. e. after all Jewish 
Sabbaths had ended — ceased to be obligatory or bind- 
ing) as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sab- 
baths came Mary Magdelene and the other Mary to see 
the sepuicher." That is, the old Sabbaths were done 
away with and the new Sabbaths inaugurated. 

Paul says that the Jewish Sabbaths were "a shad- 
ow of things to come" (Col. II, 17) and Christians in- 
terpret this to mean a shadow of the new Sabbath that 
was instituted on the ressurection morn. Paul also 
says: "There remaineth therefore a Sabbath-keeping 
to the people of God" (Heb. IV, 9). The old Sabbath 
was not destroyed ; it was transferred and modified to 
conform to new conditions. 

After the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 
A. D., the scattering of the weak Christian Church, 
the annihilation of the Jewish nation and the attempt- 
ed annihilation of the Jewish race, it is not surprising 
that the scattered Christians should have gradually 
given up the celebration of the Lord's Day on fixed 
days of the year and conformed to the customs of the 
peoples with whom they mingled in celebrating a fixed 
week-day, which they held in commemoration of the 
resurrection, the great event in Christian theology. 

The brutal persecution of the Christians by brutal 
Romans, begun under Nero, continued through man? 
generations; and, unfortunately, the persecutions of 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

the Jews continued for centuries thereafter, even to 
this day, not at the hands of brutal Romans, but of 
brutalized Christians who have forgotten the teachings 
of the humble Nazarene and the forgiving character 
of the early martyrs in the primative church. It is no 
wonder then that, during these trying times, the Jews 
thought more of preserving their lives than of preserv- 
ing their calendars that were in the custody of the 
priests, and that they, too, after a few centuries un- 
wittingly adopted a weekly Sabbath, forgetting the 
scientific Sabbath of their fathers. 

At the first Christian Pentecost (Sivan 5) (the day 
the 3000 were converted under the preaching of Peter 
and the Apostles) the double Jewish Sabbath shifted 
the next weekly Sabbath from the Egyptian Saturday 
to the Egyptian Sunday, and for a whole year the 
Christian and the Jewish Sabbath would be the same. 

There can be no doubt of the Saviour's intent to do 
away with the burdens of the ceremonial law (Ep. II, 
15; Col. II, 16,) but there is no part of the teachings 
of Moses, or Christ, or of the Apostles or of the writings 
or customs of the fathers of the Church which sanction 
the abolition of the seventh day of rest and worship. 

The Jews care nothing for the name "Saturday". 
They never used it. Saturday or Sunday, as names, 
are all the same to them. Their rest days were the 
first day of the year and each 8th day thereafter. 
These named days brought up horrible recollections of 
Egyptian bondage, and they can continue to number 
their days of the week if they so choose. If the pro- 
posed new calendar makes the first day of the year a 
day of rest, it would make the Jewish Sabbath and the 
Christian's Lord's Day coincide, as they did the first 
year after the first Pentecost after the crucifixion. 

Of all the calendars, ancient and modern, none is 
so nearly scientific as that of the ancient Hebrews, and 

39 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

all civilized nations have appreciated the benefits — in- 
deed the absolute necessity — of the Hebrew Sabbaths ; 
without doubt, one day's rest in seven best meets the 
requirements of man. In the old Jewish theocracy, 
church and state were one, and the civil and religious 
laws emanated from the same source. 

This cannot be the case in our republic, and we 
too often confuse the civil and religious rest days. They 
happen to coincide as to the day of week, but other- 
wise they are essentially different. Our Sunday laws 
pertain to the civil Sabbath only and do not depend 
^lpon 1 &\\Ae commands; they conform to them. Their 
beneficence has been recognized from the remotest 
days. 

Our rest day was suggested by the religious fer- 
vor of our honored ancestors, but it is also founded upon 
science and common sense, demonstrated by centuries 
of statistics. Forget religion — blot out God, if you will 
from the science of government; if your statesmen be 
guided by your man of science, you will still retain a 
Sabbath. Blot out science if you will ; if legislation be 
guided by men of common sense, familiar with history, 
you will still have Sunday rest laws regidly enforced. 
Scientists and statesmen of every phase of religious 
and political belief are unanimous in endorsing them. 
They declare that rest on one day in seven is absolutely 
necessary for the physical and mental development of 
man; "that the rest of the night does not entirely re- 
store the vigor lost by toil of the preceeding day, and 
that without a weekly day of rest there is a gradual 
loss of health and strength." Dr. Willard Parker says 
that this fact "is as fixed as that man must take food or 
die." 

It has been demonstrated that a man deprived of 
his Sabbath rest and compelled to labor everyday alike, 
lives, on an average of twelve years only; that our 

40 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

beasts of burden and the fields that they till, equally 
require periods of rest; and that man's best interests, 
— physical, mental, moral, economical and political — 
require that he should have one day's rest in seven. 

In 1789 an infuriated mob razed the Bastile in 
Paris, looted the churches, guillotined every man who 
wore a good coat, and rushed into the frenzy of the 

\ 



Reign of Terror. With one voice they cried "Down 



with Louis XVI. Down with God." They abolished the 
seventh day Sunday and established what they deemed 
to be the more scientific Greek rest-day — one day in 
ten. In 1889, just 100 years later, a true republic of 
France celebrated peace and good will to men in a Uni- 
versal Exposition ; and, assembled in one of the halls of 
the Exposition buildings, under the patronage of the 
French government, was an international Congress for 
the discussion of the Sunday question. It was composed 
of Protestants, Catholics, Infidels and Jews. They were 
assembled as scientific men purely, the religious side 
of the question being excluded, as it was a government 
affair. Yet there was a consensus of opinion that man's 
necessities and best interests — physical, mental, moral, 
economical and political — required that he should have 
one day's rest in seven. 

How wonderfully science and centuries of experi- 
ence corroborate the Mosaic Law. Centuries before this 
Congress in Paris, centuries before France was known 
even, centuries before Agamemnon besieged Tr>oy, 
centuries before Romulus and Remus founded Rome, 
or the statesmen of the Eternal City learned how to 
govern the world, God, through Moses, taught his 
people that the Science of Government required that 
the people should have one day in seven for rest and 
worship; France is just finding it out. How much 
time might have been saved had she studied the Bible 
instead of Voltaire. Centuries before Esculapius for- 

41 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 

mulated the medical science, God taught His people 
that their health required one day's rest in seven. Cen- 
turies before Virgil wrote his Georgics, God taught His 
people in agriculture, that the very soil of the land and 
the cattle within their gates required a day of rest. 
Centuries before Plato reasoned out the immortality of 
the soul, God taught His people that their best social 
and moral interests required one day's rest in seven 
from toil. Let the nations learn a tardy lesson : to con- 
form their statutes to the statutes of God, and their 
people will then be physically, mentally, morally, eco- 
nomically and politically the best developed in the 
world, their lands and beasts of burden fruitful and 
their citizens strong, moral and free. 

The great American republic is now becoming a 
dominant factor in the politics of the world — just be- 
ginning to appreciate a giant's strength. It is glorious 
to have a lion's strength, but cruel to use it like a lion. 
America can only be truly great and utilize its prestige 
for the benefit of mankind, when its statutes conform 
to the statutes of God; and the American people can 
never develop the strength and wisdom to which their 
dominant position entitles them, until tney are suf- 
ficiently discreet to follow to-day the laws of the old 
theocracy and devote the Lord's day to rest and wor- 
ship. 

Our forefathers deemed the Sabbath day one of 
the foundation stones of the republic; to lose it now 
is to part with a precious heritage, and depart from the 
paths that have led to prosperity and physical and men- 
tal strength. May not the unseemly strifes that some- 
times occur between Jew and Christian and between 
various Christian sects be calmed with a more correct 
understanding of the ancient Hebrew calendar and all 
unite in serving the One God on one holy day? 

42 



ANCIENT CALENDARS 
REFERENCES 

1 Encylopaedia Britannica 9th Ed. Vol. 4 title "Cal- 
endar;" sub-titles "week" and "month." 

2 Jewish Encylopaedia Vol. Ill, titles "Calendar, His- 
tory of" and "Calendar." 

3 The 4th Commandment, Ex. XX, 8-11 ; Deut. V, 12, 
15 et seq. 

4 Lev. XXIII, 15, 16, 21 et seq. 

5 Lev. XXV, 4, 5, 8 et seq. 

6 Lev. XXV, 5, 6, 7, 32, 34; XIV, 39-42; Num. VI, 9 
et seq. 

7 Chron. XXXVI, 21. 

8 Ex. XII, 1. 

9 Ex. XII, 2. 

10 Ex. XII, 6, 12-14. The sacrificial lamb was killed 
on Abib 14, evening of the 15th, and the Passover 
feast eaten on the 15th. 

11 Ex. XII, 3, 5, 6, 24; the day of wave offering was 
Abib 16th, the day after Passover, a Sabbath, Lev. 
XXIII, 5. 

12 Lev. XXIII, 5, 6. 

13 Moses placed the show bread on the tables the 1st 
day of the 2nd year. Ex. XL, 17, 22, 23 ; this was 
to be done on the Sabbath day. Lev. XXIV, 8. 

14 Lev. XXIII, 24. 

15 Lev. XXV, 2-7. 

16 Lev. XXV, 8-11, 20-22. 

17 Ex. XIX, 1, 3. 

18 Lev. XXIII, 26-32. 



43 



"Ancient Calendars" by Colonel Alexander 
S. Bacon is a suggestive volume. It not only 
takes one far back over the track of history and 
introduces him to methods of reckoning time and 
naming the days, but brings him to a serious con- 
sideration of a great question to-day. Whatever 
may be one's views as to which day is the true 
Sabbath of the Christain era the fact that the 
Jews numbered their days and cared nothing for 
the name Saturday, while the Christians follow 
the old Roman names of the week, Sunday, 
Monday etc., affords room for reflection on the pro- 
position that Jew and Christian should adopt the 
perpetual calendar as suggested by the author. I 
shall personally give further thought to this matter 
and as "at the first Christian Pentecost (Sivan 5) 
the double Jewish Sabbath shifted the weekly 
Sabbath from the Egyptian Saturday to the 
Egyptian Sunday, and for a whole year the 
Christian and Jewish Sabbath would be 
the same," there appears to be a foundationary 
principle on which to work for the effecting of 
a common or set Sabbath acceptable to both 



Christain and Jew. The author is to be 
commended on his presentation of this subject 
which will surely awaken interest^ and stimulate 
thought in this direction. 
June 29, 1915. 

Harry L. Bowlby 

GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE LORD'S DAY ALLIANCE OF THE UNITED 
STATES, NEW YORK, N. Y. 



I - 1 i o 8; 



THE MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH 
5TH AVENUE AND 29th STREET 
NEW YORK CITY 



June 28, 1915 
My Dear Col. Bacon, 

I have read with great interest your 
brochure on "Ancient Calenders." One fact seems 
to be pretty well established, to wit, that the weekly 
day of rest was originially intended to be on a 
fixed day of the year. No doubt much of the 
prevailing confusion in Sabbath Observance would 
be disposed of if we could get back to the 
ancient way. But the world is a stubborn old 
world, as you have probably discovered; and men 
will more readily fight for the letter of any 
institution than for the spirit of it. 

You have given one something to think about; 
and, as President of the Sabbath Alliance New 
York, I thank you. 

With all good wishes and sincere regards. 

I am yours 
DAVID JAS BURRELL. 



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